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Newsflash: Your DS Isn't Making You Smarter

It was almost three years ago that Nintendo's Brain Age hit the DS in America, bringing with it promises of increased mind power, as well as several dozen copycats. Like many others, I was caught up in brain training hysteria in mid-2006, though the novelty of tracking my progress at a handful of mini-games didn't really last more than a few weeks. But I guess in the long run, dropping my regiment of mind exercises didn't matter, now that there's more news of Brain Age's general uselessness as a grey matter stimulant. According to a report from Joystiq, "Consumer group Which assembled a panel of three neuroscientists to test the ideas that brain training games improve memory and help prevent dementia. The panel found 'weak' or no evidence to support the claims."

Of course, it's doubtful that anyone takes the claims (mostly, "for entertainment purposes only") of Brain Age seriously enough that this news will effect their life in any meaningful way. In fact, the intro of the game more or less proves its general valuelessness as a brain trainer; when Dr. Kawashima shows you the amount of prefrontal cortex activity that happens when you engage in one of Brain Age's reading activities, you don't have to be a neuroscientist to realize it might be easier to cut out the middleman and just pick up a book. And if you happen to be a nerd with an interest in how video games make us think (I'm not naming names), you'd know from books like James Paul Gee's What Videogames Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy that video games throw us into environments that require constant decision-making to solve problems, regardless of their content.

Besides, it's really hard to shake the icky aftertaste that comes with any adventure in edutainment.

Nintendo: Two Screens of Literature, the E-Book Trojan Horse, and Console Evolution

A week ago, I would have considered this topic to be outside of the general 61 Frames Per Second milieu, but after Shigeru Miyamoto helped me to readjust my conception of just what a videogame can be, I figure that this is worth discussion. HarperCollins, one of the last true publishing behemoths in the world, announced this week that they will be releasing 100 Classic Books Collection for the Nintendo DS. It’s a veritable library of public domain literature, vast enough to fill a Penguin Pocket Classics catalog and then some. Come the day after Christmas, and you live on that grand continent past its imperialist-prime called Europe, you’ll be able to get ten shades of Victorian with your touch screen device, indulging in a near complete collection of Charles Dickens alongside a little Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, and Oscar Wilde. There’s also a goodly selection of Bill Shakespeare to boot (but no Richard III. Denied!)

Ebooks in general are a conundrum. While they’re the format of choice for many a literate Japanese citizen, they’ve yet to become a commodity, or profitable outlet, for literature in the western world. HarperCollins, unlike most of the west’s biggest publishers, have made significant, if not effective, strides towards electronic distribution in the past twelve months. An ereader or an iPhone is $300 and a Blackberry isn’t exactly a cozy venue for a fifteen thousand word novel. But a Nintendo DS is cheap as hell and millions upon millions of readers already own one for playing videogames — not to mention how it actually resembles a proper book — so what could be a better venue to finally shove ebooks into the mainstream? Print may not be dying, but it is changing, and 100 Classic Books Collection is a very important event in the maturation of ebooks.

It’s also important in the maturation of game consoles.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.